7 the issue of / find common ground on / they managed to / rates of pay

8 going away / the family agreed that / would bring him out of his shell / to university

Exercise 4

Make sentences 1 -6 less formal. Replace the underlined words with the correct idioms A-F.

I haven’t heard any news yet, but I’ll inform you.

It was meant to be a surprise, but someone gave the secret away.

I heard a rumour that Penny and Alan are getting married.

It must be true. I heard it from a reliable source.

Let’s meet up next week just to make contact again.

They support different teams but they agreed with each other when someone mentioned the off-side rule.

Exercise 5

Match idioms 1-6 with situations A-F.

Jo and Dee learnt that Bud was being fired when Baz told them what he’d heard from Amit.

First the professor was talking about dinosaurs, then somehow it was the price of oranges!

This diamond was found by a workman on a building site. He told me about it himself.

I think we should tell Lee that the time of the meeting has been changed.

I thought we were going to the cinema and he thought I was cooking him dinner!

Nobody knew about the baby until Suzi mentioned maternity leave.

A let the cat out of the bag

B heard on the grapevine

C keep you posted

D found common ground

E heard it straight from the horse’s mouth

F touch base

Exercise 6

Complete the table. Put the idioms in the correct groups.

keep someone in the picture

go off at/on a tangent

hear something on the grapevine

keep someone posted

let the cat out of the bag

get your wires crossed

in the loop

touch base

from the horse’s mouth

at cross purposes

spill the beans

in black and white

communicating badly

1 _________________________________

2 _________________________________

3 _________________________________

maintaining communication

1 _________________________________

2 _________________________________

3 _________________________________

4 _________________________________

revealing a secret

1 _________________________________

2 _________________________________

trusting information

1 _________________________________

2 _________________________________

3 _________________________________

Your turn!

Think about the way you’ve communicated with people around you recently. Use the idioms from this unit to describe a situation from the last few days. For example:

My teacher went off on a tangent and started telling us about her holiday.

I heard on the grapevine that Petra’s getting married.

ANSWER KEY

Exercise 1

1 C 5 D

2 H 6 B

3 G 7 A

4 F 8 E

Exercise 2

1 in 5 from

2 at/on 6 at

3 on 7 out

4 in 8 out

Exercise 3

1 It must be true because it’s here in black and white.

2 Keep me in the loop as you develop the Idea.

3 We meet every week to have lunch and touch base.

4 I thought that the discussion was moving off on a tangent.

5 She asked him to keep her posted on how she was doing.

6 The newspaper reporter paid the office cleaner to spill the beans.

7 They managed to find common ground on the issue of rates of pay.

8 The family agreed that going away to university would bring him out of his shell.

Exercise 4

1 C 4 E

2 A 5 F

3 B 6 D

Exercise 5

1 D 4 E

2 F 5 A

3 B 6 C

Exercise 6

Possible answers

Communicating badly

go off at/on a tangent

get your wires crossed

at cross purposes

Maintaining communication

keep someone in the picture

keep someone posted

in the loop

touch base

revealing a secret

let the cat out of the bag

spill the beans

Trusting information

hear something on the grapevine

from the horse’s mouth

in black and white

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